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Ashter's eyes shot up, locking on the meat.

Halver gave him one strip.

Ashter swallowed it whole and pressed closer, resting his head against Halver's knee with the studied innocence of an animal pretending the contact had happened by accident. Halver fed him a second piece, then a third, each one offered with the patience of a man who knew exactly how this would end regardless of what he did.

Jade looked between them.

"You're encouraging him."

"I'm feeding him."

"Those aren't mutually exclusive."

Ashter accepted a fourth strip and leaned harder into Halver's leg. Alex dropped into the last chair and declared the clothing question settled. Jade informed him it had never been a question, which he took as proof she didn't understand how serious it was.

She looked at Corian, maybe hoping he'd end it, but he'd already opened the document case and was checking the payment forms.

"You need something to wear when we aren't training or working. What you buy is your choice."

That stopped her. Not the clothes. The last sentence.

Her attention dropped back to the letter under her hand.

"How much do clothes cost?"

Alex opened his mouth. Corian pointed at him without looking up, and whatever answer he'd prepared stayed behind his teeth.

"Depends what you choose," Corian said. "You were paid your monthly squad wage, the deployment allowance, and the additional Rift rate for the days we were inside. You can afford clothes without putting yourself at risk."

"How much risk?"

"None."

"That isn't a number."

I slid the account leaflet out of the document case before Corian could start explaining household budgets over breakfast. "The clerk will show you how to check the balance. Decide what to spend after you know what you have."

Jade took it from me. Our fingers touched along the folded edge, and I noticed the warmth of her skin before I noticed the pressure of four other minds crowding the kitchen.

That was becoming inconvenient.

We left after the eighth bell. Ashter refused to stay behind, though he agreed to travel as smoke while we were in the city, settling beneath the cuff of Jade's coat with the dignity of a creature convinced the compromise had been his own idea. Jade wore the same black clothes she'd arrived in weeks earlier, thigh holsters secured under the coat, her only pair of boots laced to the knee.

The Citadel grounds were busy without being crowded. Trainees crossed between the halls, several people greeted Corian and Alex by name, and more looked at Jade with open curiosity than at any of us. She kept her focus ahead, though the line of her shoulders shifted each time someone said her name behind us. I walked beside her because the position was comfortable. That was the explanation I chose, even after Halver shifted to her other side and Alex glanced back with an expression that made violence seem reasonable.

The road descended through old black trees, their leaves turning silver at the edges. Jade slowed near the final bend where the town first came into view below us. Not the main city. A town that had grown up over generations near the Citadel's walls, with Ladena City itself another hour away by carriage.

Black and pale stone buildings filled the valley in uneven tiers, roofs broken by market awnings, narrow towers, and tall chimneys. Streets folded between workshops, taverns, and houses packed close enough that their upper windows nearly faced one another.

Jade had seen the town from the Citadel windows plenty of times. Looking down at it was not the same as walking into it.

"Too late to escape," Alex told her. "We've seen you."

She glanced at the trees like she was calculating whether she could make the forest before he caught her.

"I could still wound you."

"You say that like it would discourage me."